By the Rev. J. Silvester Davies. 201 



we have the chatter of an old seamstress — " What can bring the 

 Bishop so often to Wilton ? Is he going to marry the Abbess ? 

 Did he get a dispensation at Borne ? " Her companion gravely put 

 her right. "But," persisted the old woman, "has not the Bishop 

 got land enough of his own ? Never was man dear to God who 

 was greedy for himself ! " Of course, this came to the Bishop's 

 ears. And now the Horatian knot had occurred — "nec Deus inter sit 

 nisi, &c." In the visions of the night the Blessed Virgin Mary 

 appeared again. He was to found the Church in a place called 

 " Mirifield " ; and with this he awoke, giving thanks to God. But 

 no one could tell him where the place was. However, some days 

 after, it is discovered in the name of a certain meadow ; and there 

 he founded the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Sarum, on St. 

 Vitalis's day (April 28th), 1220 (4 Henry III.). 



But here the story is foreshortened and confused. This was 

 really the work of his successor, Bishop Eichard le Poore (1217 — 

 1229). The Church began in a temporary wooden structure ; and 

 then the city and cathedral grew up endowed with liberties and 

 franchises by royal charter, 11 Henry III. (1227). 



The MS. next gives a short charter of the same year of Henry III. 

 (but not the foundation charter). It includes a notice of the older 

 period of the bishopric, before it was consolidated under Bishop 

 Hermann (of Sherborne) about 1058, and the seat of the bishopric 

 removed under him from Sherborne to Salisbury in 1075. 



Next comes what is certainly a charter of 9 Henry IV. (1408). 

 Then we go back to a confirmation of liberties by Bishop Eichard 

 le Poore and his citizens of New Sarum, dated in 1225, 1 which is 

 followed by other information about early Bishops, and notice of 

 the first celebration in the wooden Church on Trinity Sunday, 1219, 

 and the laying of the foundation stone of the Cathedral by Henry 

 III. on St. Vitalis's Day (April 28th), 1220. 



From a contemporary document of Eeginald de Toudeworth, 

 Mayor of New Sarum, we gather the differences, and the articles 

 of agreement, between the citizens and Bishop Symon in 1305. It ap- 

 pears that a fraction of the citizens, under Eichard de Lutegarshale, 



1 Printed in Hoare's Modern Wiltshire (Salisbury), Appendix, p. 728. 



